Trip to Panama Part 2

 Another view from the balcony

 The parrot loved to visit me upstairs

 He kept wanting to steal my shoe laces

 Families gathered in the evening for ball games in the open square

 The parrot was acting out at dinner time

 So the owner's daughter took him for a time out on the fence

 Views from the dock

Thread for sale at a store on one of the large islands

Trip to Panama, Part 1

 Spring means its time for my more or less annual trip to the San Blas Islands off Panama to purchase molas.  The lodge where I stayed had a gorgeous (spoiled) pet parrot. 

 Garbage on the next lot which was part of the view from the lodge balcony (as well as the ocean)

 A young boy fishing (actually bailing  at the moment) from a boat near the lodge

 A typical dugout canoe

 A house had burned down here and not been replaced leaving an open area

 Allmost every island has a school where the children learn in Spanish.  Many of the older people don't speak it.

 This is what you get for $90 a night.  That's tape on the floor between the boards.

 The toilets and cold shower are downstairs.

The inland view from the top floor of the lodge.

Trip to Panama

 Ok.  This trip was about 2 months ago.  But due to my problems learning to use this camera I didn't unload the photos until tonight.  My computer guru (commonly known as Michael, my son-in-law) came over and solved my user error problems. 

 For my first night I chose to stay in a hostel for a number of reasons.  Its cheap. (Panama City is expensive) It is a short night.  And my ride to the San Blas Islands was booked through the hostel and left from here (at 5:00 am)

 My room wasn't much and had a shared bath.  I had originally booked it for the three days when I returned and luckily changed my mind and booked another hotel.

 I can't imagine being cooped up here for three days working on molas.  It was fine for one quick night.

 The next morning it was off in a comfortable van to the edge of the city, through the countryside and over the steep hills to the dock where I caught a boat to the San Blas Islands.  Before you hit the dock you have to go through Army Security and check out of the country.  A couple without passports were turned back there.  At the dock you have to check in and pay a fee to visit.  They are a territory.At the dock a boat picks you up and takes you to the appropriate island.

 This is common for one of the boatmen to stand in the front.

When I arrived the hotel owner's wife organized a display of molas in front of her house.  The Kunas are a matriarchal society and she had just built a new wooden house across from the hotel.

 My room.  No screens or glass.  Electricity from dark to dawn.

I usually have a room downstairs so this was a treat to have a bathroom with light.  Try combing your hair and putting on lipstick in a dark bathroom sometime.  No hot water of course.

 A soccer field by the school.  Basketball is their other big sport.

 This is a hotel which takes up the whole island.  It is a former Smithsonian research station.

 A playing field on another island.  That is a store in the front.

 Dinner.

 The view from my window.

 The hotel owner's wife and mother.  It was a treat to be able to photograph them.

 The street in front of my hotel.  The restaurant is to the right, the hotel to the left.  As streets go here it was quite wide.

 Back in Panama City I had splashed out and had a suite.  Boy was I glad that I did.  Terrific air conditioning and really comfortable.

 With a nice little kitchen.  The hotel furnished a nice breakfast and I stocked up for my other meals at the local supermarket.

 Tons of space.  I sat and worked at taking apart mola blouses for three days

The end of the toilet paper roll the way the maid folded it.

Mola Tops

For several years I have been wearing summer tops made from rayon sarongs which I purchased in Southeast Asia. This year I decided to repeat the style, using some of the handwoven fabric which I purchased in Southeast Asia and decorating it with some of the molas which I have collected in Panama. I can wear them year round. As you see them in the summer, and over a long sleeved turtleneck shirt in the winter. This one is a wonderful indogo ikat. The mola is one I purchased two years ago from my guide on the San Blas Islands Orlando's daughter. This side celebrates the successful 1925 uprising of the Kuna against the Panamian government. The other side of the blouse has the mola from the other side of Orlando's daughter's blouse. This is one of the nicest molas I ever found, depicting Columbus's discovery of America.

Some hand woven purple ikat which i purchased in Nong Khai Thailand. The mola is an applique type made specifically for tourists. The Kuna do not wear this type and make them strictly for sale.

The other side of the shirt.

Panama and Molas

This is the Airport building in Carti. No "newfangled" stuff such as electricity or control tower. The "waiting" area is a couple of benches under the roof on the left where the man is standing. That is where the barefoot airport manager with his little orange vest checks you in with his clipboard, listing your name, age, weight, nationality and passport number. (You worry that some of this might be so that they can notify your Embassy if there is a crash. Actually there was one a few years ago near one of the Islands with all hands lost) . The manager gives you tickets for your bags but no boarding pass so you are pretty much on your own till the plane comes. This also appears to be the waiting room for the Overland route through the jungle to the main road to Panama City. A group had gathered for this and one pulled up ( a very sturdy four wheel drive with a huge baggage carrier on top) which people piled on for the jarring trip. When we heard the "plane wasn't coming" it was very tempting to take it. The sort of restaurant was in the right hand door but didn't appear to be open. The "new" trend in Molas. Using a print for the base and then embellishing it. I found this on a number of molas around various islands. Usually it was an abstract print, such as the one below, with just one of two areas containing fabric appliqued over the design. They were easy to spot even from a distance. The one below fooled me. I didn't realize it was a print until I began taking the blouse apart. On the other hand the work on this is absolutely expert. A piece of orange fabric was overlaid on the print and then cut away over the design. And the other colors were added. The only "print" showing is the black and white. Click on the photo to enlarge it. While this one is wonderful I see it as a disturbing trend.

My Trip to Panama

Hotels in Panama which I have been staying in have gone up around 50% or more in the last two years. A hotel I liked two years ago at $27 a night is now $48 for example. And since I spend only 6 hours or less in a room the night I arrive I don't want to spend a fortune. I want clean, safe, a hot shower and no bugs. This is my new room in an older section for $36 with sparkling clean white marble floors and a marble lion outside the front door of the hotel. It also had a nice restaurant which i never had time to eat in. The morning after I arrive its off to the Domestic airport at 4:30 am for a 6 am flight to the San Blas Islands.

We landed at Carti, an airport on the mainland. Some of the boats at the dock.

Some Kuni's landing on the mainland. Note the lack of traditional clothing.

On my first morning there my guide, Orlando, usually takes me on a walk around the island to purchase molas. I was asked to wait in this outside kitchen while some women went to fetch their molas. Great opportunity to snap a couple of photos. They are grating cocoanuts on the floor. I would love to take photos inside one of the houses but didn't dare even ask. I usually find at least a dozen women to purchase molas from. On this trip I found very few women selling them.

I spotted quite a few turtles wandering around various islands.

My boat was a carved out log with some trim and leaked. We would start off dry as a bone and have water sloshing around the bottom well before we returned. A bit unsettling.

One of the Columbian trading vessels which stocks the small stores on the islands. They trade for cocoanuts.

My first days purchases back in my room. Now I will have the laborious job of taking the blouses apart.

Day two three kuna women came over from another island and rode with us to our destination. I would have loved a closer photo but that was not possible.

We arrive on Malatupu and Orlando (barefoot of course) leads the way.

School children. They wear similar uniforms on all the islands.

Every island has a yard for basketball or other sports.

A local shaman took me into his hut and explained the use of medicinal pots (I bought a mola with them on which you can see on previous blogs)

We stopped on another island for lunch which we brought with us. I was offered a low carved out log to sit on as no one seemed to have the plastic chairs found everywhere. No chairs...but a cold Coke Zero was easily procured. And this darling little girl tried to lure me into purchasing her beautiful mola. At $50 I had to refuse

Lots of beautiful sail boats and an occasional big yacht anchor near the islands.

This house has a draped passageway to the outhouse and possible bathing area.

Back on my island a birthday party was going on in the yard next door. Unfortunately it would have been impolite to take a closer photo. The children were seriously well behaved and had a pinata, played games and sang songs.

Off to the airport. It was an hours ride over the water to Carti, an airport on the mainland. And we left in pitch dark with me hoping the boatman could find his way in the dark through the channels surrounding all the islands. With lightning striking in the distance I sat wondering what lightning did when it struck boats. The landing field begins in the woods and ends in the water.

The restaurant

The barefoot Kuna station manager discusses the situation with a Panamanian soldier. At first it was announced (in broken English) that the plane wasn't coming. It had gone to another airport instead.

After a fretful half hour (there is no second flight here...the next one is tomorrow) it was announced that the plane was coming after all. Whew!

Checking the Panama City skyline in the way in. When you arrive in Panama City from the San Blas Islands you have to show your passport to be allowed back in the "country". The reverse is true on the Islands where you also have to check in with your passport and pay a visiting fee, in my case $6 for three days. The Islands are a separate territory co-governed by the Kuna and by Panama.